Sports « Weekly Gravy

A man’s cardio fitness might influence whether he’ll develop — or survive — three of the most common cancers in males, a new Swedish study reports. Higher levels of cardio fitness are associated with a significantly lower risk of developing colon and lung cancers, researchers report. Cardio fitness also plays a role in a man’s likelihood of surviving prostate, colon and lung cancers, results show. “Better cardiorespiratory fitness [CRF] is not only important for reducing cardiovascular disease risk, which is often communicated, but also for reducing cancer risk in men,” said lead researcher Elin Ekblom-Bak, a senior lecturer with the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences in Stockholm. “Current cancer prevention guidelines focus on physical activity, but these findings show that CRF is also very important for both reducing cancer risk and risk of death from common cancers in men,” Ekblom-Bak said. For this study, Ekblom-Bak and her colleagues analyzed data on nearly 178,000 Swedish men, all of whom completed an occupational health assessment between October 1982 and December 2019. As part of this assessment, the men tested their cardio health on an exercise bike, with doctors registering their blood oxygen levels as they pedaled. Researchers then tracked the men’s health using Swedish health registries, to see which men wound up developing cancer. They specifically found a strong dose-response association between cardio fitness and… read on > read on >

Pairing exercise with a 10% weight loss can make a major health improvement in people living with obesity and prediabetes, a new study says. Building in regular exercise more than doubled sensitivity to insulin compared to just weight loss alone. This has the potential to prevent or delay prediabetes from progressing into type 2 diabetes while also decreasing the risk of heart disease, researchers said. “Insulin resistance is a major factor that causes type 2 diabetes, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and abnormal blood lipids in people with obesity,” said senior investigator Dr. Samuel Klein, director of the Center for Human Nutrition at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. “We’ve shown that combining exercise with weight loss causes a marked improvement in whole-body insulin sensitivity, thereby lowering the risk of developing diabetes and treating obesity-related metabolic diseases to a much greater degree than is possible with weight loss alone,” he said in a university news release. Obesity makes the body resistant to insulin, leading to an increase in blood sugar concentration, Klein explained. The 16 study volunteers were obese, with a body mass index ranging from 30 (the threshold for obesity) to 49. They also had prediabetes, with medical evidence of insulin resistance. Eight of the volunteers were put in a diet-only group and lost 10% of their body weight. The other eight also… read on > read on >

Autopsy is currently the only way to definitively diagnose chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease often seen in athletes who’ve suffered repeated blows to the head. But there may be a way to predict which athletes are likely to develop CTE, researchers report June 28 in the journal Neurology. They outline criteria for a condition called traumatic encephalopathy syndrome, where CTE is suspected based on cognitive impairment, behavior changes and other factors. “These findings suggest that this new diagnosis of traumatic encephalopathy syndrome may be useful in professional sports such as boxing and mixed martial arts and may be helpful in predicting who may experience cognitive decline,” study co-author Brooke Conway Kleven said in a journal news release. She is with the University of Nevada, Las Vegas School of Public Health. CTE was originally studied in boxers as “punch-drunk syndrome.” The progressive and fatal brain disease is linked to the development of dementia. For the new study, researchers studied 130 active and retired professional fighters in boxing, martial arts and mixed martial arts. They were a part of a brain health study run by the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. Participants had brain scans and took cognitive tests when the study began. Researchers found that those who met the criteria for traumatic encephalopathy syndrome had greater declines in brain volume. These participants also had… read on > read on >

After a focus on her own mental health and that of other athletes, U.S. gymnast Simone Biles will return to elite competition. Biles will begin with the Aug. 5 U.S. Classic outside of Chicago, the Associated Press reported. She has not competed since the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, held in 2021, where she removed herself from several events because of a mental health struggle. Biles, 26, is a seven-time Olympic medalist and the 2016 Olympic champion. She has taken most of the past two years off while advocating for athletes to be able to protect their mental health, the AP reported. In the interim, she also got married to NFL player Jonathan Owens, a defensive back for the Green Bay Packers, this spring. In Tokyo, after withdrawing from events, Biles cheered for her American teammates before returning for the balance beam final. At the time, Biles explained her withdrawal by saying she had “the twisties,” a term used in gymnastics to indicate that the athlete has lost spatial awareness in the air. The U.S. Classic typically is considered a warmup for the national championships, which will be held in late August, the AP reported. Biles previously returned to the Classic in 2018 after a two-year hiatus following her wildly successful 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. While she was the center of attention prior to Tokyo,… read on > read on >

Athletes using ketone supplements to boost their performance may be kidding themselves, researchers say. The literature on the benefit of ketone supplements is mixed. Some studies have shown the supplements improve performance, but others say they have no effect or even worsen performance. Natural ketones fuel the brain and muscles. A ketogenic diet of very low carbs and high fat causes the body to make more ketone compounds and increase their use for energy. Ketone supplements are thought to speed up that process, without the strict diet, the researchers noted. “One of the main perceived benefits is that ketones may serve as an alternative fuel source during exercise or potentially alter the utilization of other major fuel such as carbohydrates and fats, and in turn enhance endurance capacity,” said researcher Martin Gibala, a professor in the kinesiology department at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada. “But our findings suggest that isn’t the case,” he added in a university news release. For the study, Gibala and his team tested 23 well-trained endurance athletes who cycled five or more hours a week, selecting them because their athletic performance is consistent from day to day. Each participant completed two trials that differed only in the drink they were given before they completed a 20-minute cycling time trial that closely predicts 40-km race performance. The drinks contained a ketone supplement… read on > read on >

The number and strength of head impacts, not concussions, cause degenerative brain injuries to football players, a new study suggests. That’s what appears to drive the growing number of cases of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), researchers say. Chronic traumatic encephalopathy is a progressive and fatal brain disease associated with repeated traumatic brain injuries (TBIs). It is also linked to the development of dementia, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. In this new study of 631 deceased football players, researchers found that the odds of developing CTE were related to the number of head impacts they experienced and how hard those impacts were. “These results provide added evidence that repeated non-concussive head injuries are a major driver of CTE pathology rather than symptomatic concussions, as the medical and lay literature often suggests,” said senior author Dr. Jesse Mez, co-director of clinical research at the Boston University CTE Center. These new data might provide football with ways to prevent CTE, according to researchers. “This study suggests that we could reduce CTE risk through changes to how football players practice and play,” said lead author Dr. Dan Daneshvar, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and physician-researcher at Mass General Brigham. “If we cut both the number of head impacts and the force of those hits in practice and games, we could lower the odds that athletes develop CTE.”… read on > read on >

More than 7,500 people were killed last year after being struck by vehicles while walking along or across U.S. roadways — the most pedestrian deaths in more than four decades, according to a new report. This sobering trend was not surprising to experts who track the numbers. But they were dismayed by the consistent increase — up 77% since 2010. “This is unacceptable. It’s really mind-boggling. It hard to wrap your head around, at least it’s hard for me to wrap my head, 20 deaths every single day,” said Adam Snider, a spokesman for the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA), which reported state-by-state numbers this week. “And then when you think about how many people each single death affects: family members, neighbors, friends, mentors, pastors, how many other people we touch in our daily lives,” Snider said. “To think of all those ripple effects, I’m sometimes at a loss for words, just with how unfortunate and awful the situation is.” While pedestrian deaths have been rising sharply over the past dozen years, other traffic-related deaths also increased but at a lower 25%. GHSA used data from state highway safety offices in 49 states and Washington, D.C., for its report. Oklahoma did not provide state data, but has averaged 92 deaths annually in recent years. The projected 7,508 pedestrian deaths nationwide last year was up 1%… read on > read on >

A traumatic brain injury (TBI) can have long-term effects, much like a chronic condition, a new study says. Looking at hundreds of patients, researchers found that problems related to traumatic brain injuries can last for years, with people improving and declining at different time points. These problems encompassed memory, thinking and everyday functioning. “TBI is essentially a chronic condition like many other chronic conditions,” said lead researcher Benjamin Brett, an assistant professor in the Departments of Neurosurgery and Neurology at the Medical College of Wisconsin. “Things can change, both up and down, improve and decline throughout multiple years.” Because of this, there’s a need to monitor patients “well beyond that post-injury period,” Brett said. “We need to establish systems of care that involve continued monitoring and treatment.” The idea may be controversial, however. A chronic condition implies an underlying disease that is expected to change and/or get worse in predictable ways, said Dr. Daniel Torres, a neurologist at Northwell Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. “I would not consider TBI a chronic condition because it is an unpredictable condition with which different individuals can have greatly different consequences,” Torres said. For the study, Brett and his colleagues collected data on more than 900 people who had mild TBIs, mostly concussions, and nearly 200 people who had moderate to severe TBI. These were conditions like… read on > read on >

Alzheimer’s robs its victims of their memories and there is no cure, but there are things you can do to prevent Alzheimer’s disease. With Alzheimer’s, two types of brain proteins, called tau tangles and beta-amyloid plaques, grow out of control. According to Harvard Health, these proteins destroy brain cells and cause symptoms like confusion, memory loss and personality changes. Yet, there are many preventive measures that can be taken to reduce your risk of developing Alzheimer’s. Here are six ways you can help prevent this debilitating condition and protect your brain health. How to prevent Alzheimer’s Exercise According to Alzheimer’s Society UK, the results of 11 studies revealed that Alzheimer’s risk was reduced by 45% for middle-aged people who exercised regularly. Older people have also been scientifically shown to benefit from exercise, which helps improve memory and thinking. While the reasons exercise is so beneficial for reducing Alzheimer’s risk are still being researched, one study published in Nature Metabolism points to a hormone called irisin that’s released during physical activity. The researchers showed that this hormone has positive effects on cognition and nerve inflammation in the brain. “The most convincing evidence is that physical exercise helps prevent the development of Alzheimer’s or slow the progression in people who have symptoms,” Dr. Gad Marshall, director of clinical trials at Brigham & Women’s Center for Alzheimer Research… read on > read on >

A pro football career can mean chronic pain after retirement, but Black players are especially hard-hit, a new study finds. The study, of nearly 4,000 former National Football League (NFL) players, found that Black men reported more intense, more debilitating pain than their white counterparts. They were also more likely to suffer from depression, anxiety or fatigue — and those problems were often related to their pain levels. Researchers said the findings speak to a larger, well-documented issue: Black Americans are more affected by chronic pain, and less likely to have it effectively treated, than white people. And it appears those disparities are not erased by the status and resources that can come with being a professional athlete. “I do think it’s striking that this disparity is still seen in a group of people that has relatively more advantage than the average American,” said lead researcher Robert Edwards, a clinical psychologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital’s Pain Management Center in Boston. It all suggests that racial disparities in chronic pain are not explained by health insurance and access to health care alone. “It’s more complicated than that,” Edwards said. “We have known about some of the risk factors for adverse pain-related outcomes, and they include low social support, depression and anxiety.” Those risk factors, he added, are both more common among Black Americans, and —… read on > read on >